Opinion: Guest Opinions

Patty Chonis, CEO and president of A-Tek Systems Group, listens to other speakers during a Women Entrepreneurs panel discussion last year at the Xilinx Retreat Center in Longmont. (Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

Colorado is making a big name for itself as an innovation hub, sitting at the epicenter of tremendous entrepreneurial growth (In 2015 alone, Colorado startups raised $683 million in funding and generated $2.7 billion in exits) yet today's funding models are significantly under-serving woman-led companies.

Despite the fact that women start small businesses at nearly twice the rate of men, only 4 percent of venture capital goes to female entrepreneurs. Even more alarming, a recent study found that when women receive financing from an all-male venture capital firm, their probability of a successful exit goes down dramatically.

Beyond the venture space, less than 1 percent of corporate procurement goes to women-led businesses, and only 5 percent of female entrepreneurs have mentors. With small businesses as a major driving force in our national and state economies, this is a problem that needs to be solved.

One of the reasons that so little funding goes to companies run by women is that today 90 percent of venture capitalists are men. They invest in things they understand that reflect their experience.

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Right now, women have a significant competitive advantage in this world. We look at the financial as well as social benefit when deciding what to buy. We have money like we've never had before — we are set to inherit 75 percent of the largest wealth transfer in history — and we are looking for new ways to deploy that capital. We make 80 percent of purchasing decisions, so we are aware, every day, of the way the market is not serving us. And finally, we are dropping out of institutions and corporations in record numbers to pursue our own dreams, in a work environment that works for us, on our own terms.

The companies women are starting resonate with women because we understand women.

The next step we need to see is women stepping forward to be investors in these innovative companies or we will leave another generation of transformational women-led companies starving for capital. In a world with a mindset of "winner takes all," only the rich can get richer. Right now 62 people in the world have the same wealth as 3.5 billion people. Last year it was 85 people.

Society values equity investing where investors make outsized bets on companies becoming unicorns (a term widely used to describe companies that get to $1 billion in valuation very quickly). These companies often outsource their talent to grow quickly, whereas peer-based lending models focus on revenue-generating companies that hire people and strengthen local economies.

How did this system get so entrenched? It's been decades and decades of mostly the same people at the table, with the same mindset, talking to one another in a closed loop.

It's time for a change. We need regulations that incentivize women of all ages, stages and sectors to get behind one another to enable the kinds of businesses that build a better world.

We need new models that democratize venture capital and seed capital for women building businesses that have a goal of growth and strengthening our local economies. Companies that enter our markets and simply siphon off profits to enrich the bank accounts of first-in investors cannot be the only model for our future.

It's time to look at new ways to use our capital to create the kind of society we want. Changing the way the world thinks and acts is a generational initiative that requires new models, new mindsets and a global movement.

Last year, a new model was born called radicalgenerosity. In the span of a few short months, 500 women across the Canada and the U.S. created a $500,000 fund to loan to five women-led ventures. The success of the pilot caught the attention of thousands of women around the world and the model is now rolling out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and right here in Colorado with a goal of reaching 1 million women and $1 billion in annual loans to female entrepreneurs by 2020.

We have everything we need to fix the current model. We have enough money, we have enough connections, we all know someone who would benefit either from the connections the network offers, or from the funding this model could provide their business. The time is now. The ladies are coming!

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